


The Breakfast Club, or Cereal: A Love Story

by HugBubble



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies), Wintershock - Fandom
Genre: F/M, and fluff everywhere, cereal everywhere, i think some fluff was in that cereal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-28
Updated: 2016-07-28
Packaged: 2018-08-22 07:21:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8277544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HugBubble/pseuds/HugBubble
Summary: Darcy Lewis bumps into a certain former Winter Soldier in the kitchen at 4am.
Rating for occasional language use.
PREVIOUSLY PART OF "GLORIOUS YOU" - I decided to separate these fics into individual stories rather than a collection.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt - the cereal dispenser in the dining hall broke while I was getting froot loops and now they’re all over the floor and you blame me.
> 
> They're not froot loops. I'm sorry, I changed it. There was also not much blame going around.
> 
> Set in the Tower, everyone happy and chill with each other.

Darcy's favourite part of living in the Avengers Tower was the kitchen.  
  
It could have been the free private room she had directly across the hall from Jane and Thor, where she had a plush bed and a lil baby kitchen and a kick-ass power shower. Oh god, the shower.  
  
It could have been the labs, with the equipment basically no money could buy because it was all custom made, which she was allowed to run wild experimenting with whenever Jane didn't need her help. (That wasn't often, but stilllllll.)  
  
It could have been the people she lived with, aside from Jane and Thor. Her new best friend was Wanda, who could change the TV channels at will and somehow knew exactly when she wanted another cup of tea. Tony spent a remarkably small amount of time here considering he owned the place, but he was always nice and he bought her new types of pop-tart from around the world whenever he came home. She was getting self defence lessons alongside Jane from Natasha twice a week; Darcy mostly took part to counteract the pop-tart weight gain, but some of it sunk in. And Jarvis was quite frankly a godsend.  
  
It could have been the central New York location with unlimited transport access, which she got to explore to her heart's content on her days off.  
  
It could have been the shiny black card which she also got to abuse on those occasions, in the reeeeeeeeally fancy clothing stores and the collector's bookstores, thanks to her pay-check having far too many zero's considering half her job was making sure Jane had at least 2 hours sleep a day. Both their sleep schedules were so _beyond_ messed up.  
  
It could have been any of those things, or so many others.  
  
But it was the kitchen.  
  
The kitchen was like a dream. Like the labs, most of the equipment - oven, refrigerator, freezer, mixer, even the toaster - were all custom designed. Originally by Stark Tech, but as more and more people made their homes here there was continuous suggestions for additions and upgrades. And Tony provided.  
  
Darcy's _favourite_ part of her favourite part of the Tower, were the cereal dispensers.  
  
There were about 50, an oval array of glass cylinders, like those candy kiosks you get in malls where you put a quarter in the slot and it spits out a paper bag's worth of the type of candy you chose. Except each of the cylinders had a little coloured glass etching of the cereal's name upon it, and instead of a slot for money there was a pushy-button to hold down for as long as you wanted it to dispense aforementioned cereal.  
  
Darcy didn't think too hard about where the cereal _came_ from, she liked to imagine each of the cylinders got refilled at midnight by the cereal fairy, though in truth Jarvis probably had some sort of automatic system in place.  
  
It was one of several islands in the middle of the kitchen, and it was for this heavenly place, this range of wonder, that Darcy was headed at 4am on this particular night. She had plucked a spoon from a draw and a bowl from a cupboard, and was just filling it with Lucky Charms when she heard a microwave ping behind her.  
  
Several things happened at once. A man Darcy had not seen, sleep deprived as she was, rose from one of the sofas and made to walk towards the kitchen-filled half of the enormous living space. Darcy turned rapidly towards him, startled, and her fluffy socks slipped on the tiled floor. She grabbed the closest thing to her non-bowl hand in order to steady herself - the Lucky Charms dispenser.  
  
The dispenser gave way under her entire body weight.  
  
There was an almighty crash as the glass case fell, while toasty oaty hoops and marshmallowy rainbows, hearts and clovers were scattered across the floor. Darcy landed unceremoniously on her back, legs splayed slightly and her mercifully intact bowl rolling away from her, spilling a few extra bits of cereal along its way.  
  
"Holy shit!" Darcy screeched, screwing her eyes shut and praying she didn't get concussion from the way her head hit the marble.  
  
The figure drew closer to her, a little hesitantly. But then, she thought, who wouldn't be cautious of the loud girl at 4am who was essentially making a cereal-angel around herself as she flailed to become upright once more.  
  
"Are you... Injured?" the man said, his voice soft and low.  
  
"I don't think so," she answered, giving up her attempts and laying back in defeat, several crunching noises coming from underneath her. She prayed it was all cereal and not glass.  
  
He cocked his head to one side slightly, something that was possibly a smirk forming on his lips but it vanished so quick Darcy couldn't decide for sure. He offered her his hand.  
  
"Thanks dude," she said, taking it. The guy was strong, like way strong, and Darcy found herself standing again without even having to push herself up.  
  
"No problem," he muttered, walking towards the microwave, leaving Darcy surrounded by cereal.  
  
She made to get a dustpan from one of the cupboards and started sweeping her mess, glancing up at him every so often, watching him stir the bowl and reheat it and add honey and stir it some more. The hand holding the bowl was sort of shiny.  
  
"Hey, you're Bucky Barnes," she spurted out, the second she realised it. Roughly three seconds later, she could have punched herself. Way to go, half-yelling the guys name at him like he didn't know that well enough.  
  
"And you're Darcy Lewis," he parroted back at her, raising his eyebrows as he eat ate leaning against the counter.  
  
Darcy groaned. There was only one way he could know this. Well, there were several, but she knew the most likely. The longest one-on-one encounter she had ever had with the good Cap heavily involved her walking in on him in the gym wash room, her having gone into the men's by mistake.  
  
"How do you know that?" she asked cagily.  
  
Bucky smirked, and it was definitely real this time. Oh god. Perving on Steve and spilling breakfast treats, her reputation was doing so well.  
  
"Anyways what are you doing up at 4am?" Darcy decided more questions was the best avoidance tactic before he actually answered the first.  
  
"Making porridge," he nodded at the spoonful he was holding before swallowing it.  
  
"Still, at 4am?!"  
  
"Coming from the girl with cereal in her hair?"  
  
"Oh fuck," she said, putting the swept-up cereal on the countertop and frantically combing through her hair, "Can't sleep then?" she asked again. Darcy Lewis was nothing if not persistent.  
  
Bucky reached out his hand and plucked a last marshmallow from her shoulder, resting it atop the others, "Already slept. Training in half an hour."  
  
"Whaaaat?" she looked him up and down, taking in the jogging bottoms and vest top, "Steve makes you train this early? I thought he was supposed to be the symbol of peace and goodliness, not of sleep deprivation!"  
  
Bucky didn't laugh, "No, I make me train this early. It's... easier, when there's less people."  
  
"Oh," Darcy said quietly, "I didn't mean to- I mean, I'm sorry."  
  
"It's okay," he answered, setting down his bowl in the sink and running the tap, "It's my choice. Steve keeps telling me I should train with the others, that it'd be good for me and for them. I'm just not sure I can be around that many people yet," he paused, picking up soap and a sponge and shaking his head, "Sorry, I'm not sure why I'm telling you that."  
  
"Hey it's okay," she said, "I get it. Sometimes it gets a bit overwhelming for everybody, I think. That's why I come and eat cereal here every night, even if I'm in the middle of reading or sleeping or working. It's my way of taking a break, of doing something sort of normal without being surrounded by all the others. It's good to have little private moments like that. But," she frowned at him, "You can't separate yourself forever. Even if you don't feel comfortable training or whatever. There's a whole bunch of stuff. If you come to movie nights you don't even have to talk." She smiled in what she hoped was an encouraging way. Bucky smiled back, so she thought she did alright.  
  
"Thanks," he answered, propping his bowl up on the drying rack and wiping his hand on a towel.  
  
"Now," Darcy smiled, pouring her glass-ridden Lucky Charms down the rubbish shoot, "What are you doing eating porridge for?"  
  
Bucky looked bemused, "It's what I've always eaten. At least, I think it is. It's what Steve eats."  
  
"Porridge is bland and boring and for old people," she wrinkled her nose, "So okay yes, you and Steve."  
  
"Where are you going with this?" Bucky asked, his lips scowling but his eyes sparkling.  
  
"Wellllll," Darcy turned, holding her hand towards him but careful not to follow instinct and actually drag him by force, "If you're not sure about other people yet, you should _at least_ integrate yourself with a wider variety of breakfast foods."  
  
She walked to the cereal stand, and he followed, taking her hand.

**Author's Note:**

> If you like my writing/like me, feel free to hit me up on [my tumblr](http://hug-bubble.tumblr.com/) ^_^  
> Fics that have been edited, all thanks to [gingergenower](http://archiveofourown.org/users/gingergenower), she is my one true bae, and any mistakes left in are all on me either because she didn't see the final edit or because I was too eager to upload to wait for her approval.


End file.
